The fare hike, which would be the first in four years — seven years, with regard to seniors and students — would take effect in September if approved. MTA’s $1.50 base rate is the lowest in the nation — an important statistic, considering that more than 80 percent of the agency’s customers are minorities and poor, the Tribune reports.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and fellow MTA board members Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky proposed a motion earlier in the week that would shore up the MTA’s fare subsidy program for low-income riders by providing subsidies amounting to annually for about $10 million in aid subsidies a year to aid about 6 million riders.

The motion seeks to suspend fare hikes in 2017 and 2020, as well as all increases in student bus passes until a special task force can meet and to examine those aspects of a potential fare restructuring.

“They have temporarily stopped a rise in student passes but they are socking it to their parents,” Bus Riders Union co-chair Eric Mann told the newspaper.

The MTA argues that the fare hike is necessary to keep the agency’s operating budgetabove water. The Bus Riders Union, however, disagrees, and held a rally opposing the fare hike on Monday at City Hall. Union co-chair, Eric Mann, told the Tribune, “This agency has a $5 billion annual budget. It is literally flush. They have tons of money …They should be reducing fares and increasing service.”

The only motion the union will accept, says Mann, is a no vote on any fare increases.

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